
STORM.3: TOGETHER AND ALONE
There’s a storm coming to Newport, though perhaps for a change, it’s not the meteorological kind. In the NEON this month, a former Odeon cinema and hive of entertainment attempting to fulfil its acronymic prophecy that Newport Entertains Our Nation, the latest incarnation of Mike Brookes’ Storm Cycle series takes to the stage.
Brookes, a National Theatre Wales Associate Artist, has been working on his Storm cycle for three years now, culminating creatively in 2020 with the creation of a new, large-scale production for National Theatre Wales’ 10th anniversary. Storm.3: Together And Alone draws on a raft of social and environmental concerns, fusing the works of feminist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir and her set of essays The Ethics of Ambiguity with more contemporary political soundbites.
Previous instalments of Storm looked at reimagining Ovid’s Metamorphoses and the Cardiff city centre riots of June 1919, so Brookes is no stranger to dealing with turbulent social situations. Of course, the production’s name seems fitting – and promises to contort familiar aspects of theatre into something new and unexpected – previous iteration Storm 2: Things Come Apart was described by Buzz’s reviewer as “terrifying” at times. Preceding works for National Theatre Wales saw Brookes work with long-time collaborator Mike Pearson, in a variety of projects from 2010’s The Persians to 2012’s Coriolan/Us, before Iliad four years ago.
Building on previous approaches Brookes has taken in his work, Storm.3 looks to a wealth of sources – cinematic, literary, contemporary and historical – and delves into figuring out the forms theatre can take in adapting to the consequences of today’s climate, both environmental and political, exploring themes of truth and testimony.
The production aims to investigate who we are as a nation amidst the current turbulent sociopolitical uncertainty, performed just days before the UK’s planned exit from the European Union. Together And Alone also looks back to the state of the country as it was just after the Second World War and the foundations of the Europe we now know.
words Chloe Edwards
The Neon, Newport, Thurs 21-Sat 23 Mar. Tickets: £10/£7.50. Info: www.nationaltheatrewales.org